Trump seems to rule out deeper US intervention in Syria

"I was sitting at the table, we had finished dinner", Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.

"We're not going into Syria", Trump said in an interview with Fox Business. He said a USA declaration of Chinese manipulation could jeopardize talks with China on North Korea.

The Chinese are also aware that Trump sometimes bluffs, blunders and later backs down.

It's rare for American leaders to link trade or currency disputes to broader worldwide security efforts against countries such as North Korea.

When Bartiromo asked if Trump thinks the North Korean dictator is "mentally fit", Trump said he didn't know.

Beijing is willing to work with Washington on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program but wants a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump in a phone call on Wednesday.

The dessert diplomacy seems to have sweetened Trump's relationship with Xi.

Trump insists that China must exert more leverage on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions or suffer the consequences. According to a recent report in the New York Times, Trump hired campaign manager Paul Manafort a year ago after expressing appreciation for Manafort's "tanned, no-hair-out-of-place appearance" and youthful demeanor. Over and over during the presidential campaign, Trump pilloried China, accusing it of manipulating its currency. "Trump fashions himself as the leading man - the protagonist of every story in which he stars", The Post's team wrote, adding that the president "was content to have Bannon as his sidekick, but he did not welcome the competition for top billing".

"China is ready to coordinate closely with Russia to help cool down as quickly as possible the situation on the peninsula and encourage the parties concerned to resume dialogue", Wang told Lavrov, referring to the stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear programme that includes Russia, China and the United States.

"It will be interesting to see what measures China takes to ramp up pressure on North Korea", she said. And I think it's very bad for Russian Federation.

Trump and other USA officials have repeatedly called on China to leverage its status as North Korea's biggest economic partner and source of food and fuel aid to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Even Chinese solar panels are flooding the US market, pushing domestic solar producers out of business, he said.

This week, the USA president diverted an aircraft carrier toward the seas off the divided Korean Peninsula to deter North Korea from conducting another nuclear or missile test.

Economist Dean Baker of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research says the timing of Trump's change of views was likely related to an annual report on trade manipulators that is due from the Treasury this weekend.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Wednesday at a regular briefing in Beijing that it was a "good thing" that the two leaders were in touch again days after meeting in Florida.

Trump also suggested to the Journal that he could still reappoint Janet Yellen to another term as Federal Reserve Chair - something he said before that he wouldn't do.